Firefighters found man sitting on chair and not breathing — they fought tirelessly for 20 minutes to save his life
First responders play a crucial role in keeping people safe and alive during emergencies. However, a team of firefighters did an exemplary job with an unresponsive cardiac arrest patient, and their shift did not end there. For some time, they were out and about trying to save another unresponsive cardiac arrest patient. The team was recognized for the extraordinary work they did in such a short span. They even ended up saving the first patient's life, per Fire Rescue 1.
The incident occurred on a Saturday, and the crew at Falls Fire Department Engine 3 heard an alarm. Fire Captain Bart DeRosa and Firefighters Tim Kennedy, John Scott and Matt Anderson went in to find an unresponsive man on a chair. He had no pulse and was not breathing either. The crew arrived at the location four minutes after the alarm rang, and even though the man was unresponsive, his body was warm. They immediately got to work after laying him on the floor and started giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). They also attached defibrillator pads to his chest. After a few minutes, the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) gave an alert that read "Shock advised." They decided to follow the prompt and administered a shock to the man.
The team worked for around 20 minutes and switched between giving the man an "alternating series of CPR" and 6 more shocks. The team eventually registered a strong pulse from him and loaded him on a stretcher to take him to the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. Throughout that time, they gave him rescue breathing. The patient was admitted to the medical center's cardiac intensive care unit and started recovering from his cardiac arrest. But the crew was up and running an hour later as they got a call for an unresponsive woman who had perhaps suffered an overdose. The woman was not breathing and had a faint pulse when the crew reached her. They provided her with the same combination of CPR and AED shocks. She was given three shocks and alternating CPR for more than eight minutes.
They gave her the treatment for around 20 minutes, and then her pulse was strong enough to take her to the medical center. Unfortunately, her pulse was lost again in the medical center and she was pronounced dead in the emergency room. The team was awarded the department's 2024 Battalion Chiefs' Award. The citation expressed, "Thanks to the hard work, quick decisiveness and training of the Engine 3 crew, they were able to save the life of one patient and give another patient a real fighting chance at survival, all within less than two hours."
In another case, firefighters came to the rescue when a baby inhaled formula and started turning blue. The kid breathed in the formula he spat and CPR didn't work on him, per CBS News. The panicky parents immediately called 911 to get the right kind of help for their baby, Wyatt. His mom, Andrea, recounted that the crew arrived in four minutes and saved their son's life. "So they grabbed him and started suctioning his nose and his mouth and what happened was fluid came out." In a minute, the baby started going back to his normal color and began breathing. The baby was doing well, and the mom later shared a Facebook post thanking everyone for their help in the time of need.